Doomsday Wonderland

Regardless of who was inside the flattened rat and whatever it was doing, it seemed to be a natural trait of this type of duoluozhong to always act in a pretentious manner.

As it walked into the 5th exhibition hall based on its memory, began sniffing around, and gradually narrowed down its search, finally pressing its nose against one of the booths and nodding, Lin Sanjiu suspected that it had known that this booth was one of the targets all along.

"A strong human scent leaks out here." The flattened rat didn't open the cylindrical booth door; instead, it retreated a meter or two with a rustling sound, standing together with the tour guide. The tour guide quickly moved away as if she had been shocked; this was indeed her normal reaction.

After tearing off the red cloth, the empty glass cylinder indeed didn't contain a duoluozhong. However, before Lin Sanjiu actually opened the cylindrical booth door, just to be cautious, she stood a couple of steps away and read the information plaque on the glass cylinder.

"#27 duoluozhong, name unknown. #27 originates from a world abundant in deceptive mimicry-style organisms, possibly integrating certain features of that world's biological system. It can temporarily disguise its semi-transparent body as the appearance of an object in its surroundings."

'It should be the duoluozhong I sliced into pieces,' Lin Sanjiu thought. The description matched, which meant that there should be a person hidden under this cylindrical platform. However, why was it so quiet? Was it because it heard someone approaching and didn't dare to make a sound?

Having confidence in one's own skills was one thing, but ensuring one's own safety was another, especially since her remaining Higher Consciousness wasn't enough to cover her entire body with the [Defense Forcefield]. After rummaging through her card collection for a while, Lin Sanjiu realized that she had never gathered defense items, relying solely on her Higher Consciousness. She had only one item that seemed like it might be useful in the current situation, which she had obtained from the Lake Pocket Dimension: [Extension Arm]. She had never used it before, but it might be of some use now.

[Extension Arm]

A not very powerful item, but very handy. When, for various reasons, you don't want to use your own hands, such as searching through a corpse, rummaging through trash, poking a beehive, touching a wild beast's teeth, reaching into a drain to pick up money... and so on, you can attach this [Extension Arm] to your wrist and extend it (up to three meters) to perform dirty tasks in place of your own hands.

Note: Not very sturdy, it's a consumable item. It's not as flexible as a human hand, more like operating with five chopsticks, more or less. Don't have too many expectations.

Lin Sanjiu used the [Extension Arm]'s "two chopsticks" to push open the cylindrical platform's door, which unexpectedly opened quite easily. It seemed that the tour guide's suggestion of sealing the door shut hadn't been implemented by the staff member who had experienced being the flattened rat. Apart from that, there didn't seem to be any danger, making her previous caution unnecessary.

"Door isn't sealed," she casually informed, hearing the tour guide exclaim, "Huh?" as if she was quite surprised.

"Did you kill them all?" the tour guide murmured. "But if you had killed them earlier, you wouldn't have been able to vent your anger, and this..."

Vent her anger? Lin Sanjiu resisted the urge to look back at her; there wasn't much to see anyway. She silently walked forward and pulled the door open a bit wider. As the exhibition hall lights illuminated the interior of the cylindrical platform, a motionless figure was highlighted.

This person was also wearing a staff vest, appearing to be under thirty years old. He was undoubtedly still alive, as his chest was gently rising and falling to such a slight degree that it was almost imperceptible. The bland features on his face were calm and peaceful, as if he was immersed in the deepest and most pleasant dream.

In other words, he was sleeping deeply, so deeply and peacefully that Lin Sanjiu couldn't even hear his breathing from outside the cylindrical platform.

Suddenly, a snickering sound came from behind.

Lin Sanjiu twisted around in a hurry but found that nothing unusual had happened: the flattened rat and the tour guide were both standing several steps away, staring into the cylindrical platform. The source of the snickering sound must have been one of them, but it was low and light, not produced by the throat at all. It was a mere puff of air that escaped from the nostrils, making it impossible for her to discern who had involuntarily chuckled just now.

The tour guide seemed to have also heard the laughter. She widened her eyes, as if she realized what Lin Sanjiu was thinking. She didn't dare move her head but rotated her eyes several times towards the direction of the flattened rat, probably indicating that the laughter had come from the flattened rat.

"What's so funny?" Lin Sanjiu asked the flattened rat.

The rat's face, which appeared to be flattened by a wheel, twitched twice. "I didn't laugh."

As it spoke, a black dot suddenly appeared on its white arc-shaped eyes. It turned towards the tour guide with a hint of implication and then disappeared.

Both the rat and the tour guide were signaling to her that the laughter came from the other party.

"Anyway," the tour guide, who probably hadn't noticed the flattened rat's movement, interjected, "That person might not have a sealing ability or item, but they can induce deep sleep, right?"

Regardless of what that laughter meant, she probably wasn't wrong. If the purpose was to render their colleagues speechless and trapped until Lin Sanjiu killed them, putting them into a deep sleep was obviously more effective than sealing the door. RＡNȯΒËⱾ

Lin Sanjiu swallowed, as if she could push down that vague unease with this action. She glanced at the tour guide and asked, "What do you think we should do with him?"

The flattened rat's white arc-shaped eyes had another black dot, which turned towards Bee Sting Venom. This time, its attempt to forcibly suppress a laugh was clearer, accompanied by a slight trembling of a few long hairs above its nostrils, making Lin Sanjiu more aware of it.

"Since you said keeping them alive is unsafe, should we... should we kill them...?" The tour guide's complexion turned somewhat pale, and her hands were wringing.

Lin Sanjiu didn't know the tour guide well enough to know if this was something she would say. By now, a faint thought had descended over her like a shadow.

Setting that concern aside for now, she turned her head to look at the sleeping staff member.

In the past, Lin Sanjiu might have hesitated to take action against a sleeping person. After being transformed by Ah Quan, she shouldn't have any psychological burden regarding this. Yet, at this moment, she surprisingly found herself having a thought. 'This person is still young and apparently found it amusing, which is why he took advantage of his job to secretly experience the duoluozhong.'

If he never intended to release the duoluozhong in the first place and had no plans to harm anyone but was manipulated by the mastermind who was experiencing the flattened rat to create the current situation... did that mean he might not deserve to die? After all, once inside a duoluozhong, he would view everything from the perspective and mindset of a duoluozhong... right?

"You're not going to kill him?" The flattened rat's snout suddenly and silently extended from beside her. Lin Sanjiu was startled, not sure what had surprised her more: the fact that its movement was so swift and quiet, or that it had such keen perception of her expression and attitude.

"If you don't kill him, can you give him to me?" It was almost unable to contain its excitement.

"Get lost," Lin Sanjiu replied coldly.

The flattened rat wasn't scared or angry. It extended two human-like hands from beneath its belly to cover its mouth and took a few steps back, its whiskers trembling slightly, almost as if it was afraid it might burst into laughter.

With a hint of timidity, the tour guide spoke hesitantly, "This person... is the one who created the 'wall' that blocked me earlier, right?"

Lin Sanjiu made an affirmative sound. Stripped of her usual guarded expression, anyone would appear innocent and youthful at first glance. The longer she looked at him, the harder it became to make a decision.

A sound similar to someone trying to suppress nausea emanated from the tour guide's throat.

"I remember him," she murmured, "when they all thought you were dead, he intended to do something to me. He said he had wanted to know the taste of a female posthuman for a long time. It's really strange; he doesn't look like the kind of person who would say such things. Could it be the residual consciousness of the duoluozhong?"

Among the grand prize's items that Lin Sanjiu had obtained for self-defense was a [Penguin Children's Pop-up Book]. On the fourth page of this book, which contained pop-up paper models, there was an illustration of several families barbecuing and chatting happily in their backyard. The only thing not so cheerful was the iron spike protruding from the children's cheeks.

Taking out one of the iron spikes from the illustration, she pierced it through the heart of the sleeping man. Most of it had entered his body; she only withdrew it once the other end had pierced through the chaise lounge's surface.

As she was about to leave, the corner of her eye caught the flattened rat, which was sniffing around and seemed eager to try something. After a moment's thought, she raised her hand and collected the corpse. "Let's go, find the next person."

The expression on the rat's face didn't reveal whether it was disappointed or not. Nevertheless, it was very cooperative, quickly stepping up to her side and chattering incessantly, "Alright, I remember it's in this direction. It's either the 6th exhibition hall or the 7th exhibition hall, and it should be easy to find since I remember they didn't cover the red cloth back up after they came out... Oh, by the way, you've noticed, right? The young lady has a duoluozhong inside her."

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